Category Archives: osm.org

If you head over to OpenStreetMap.org and click on the layers button on the right of the map, you are provided a selection of map layers to choose from. This is possible due to the nature of OpenStreetMap – by distributing open geographic data we enable others to produce a map from OpenStreetMap data in whatever style they require. The OSM website provides five such styles but there are many hundreds, if not thousands of other styles in use across the web.

We will shortly begin to roll out a new version of the ‘Standard’ (or default) map style replacing the current version. Although the new version is an evolution of the existing version, the changes to road colours and the display of railways will significantly help to improve the readability of the map. During this roll out you may see a patchwork of old and new map style for a few hours – please be patient whilst our servers work hard to update all corners of the map.

How will the style change?

The change of the map style will primarily effect the way roads and railways are displayed. As OpenStreetMap has grown over the last 11 years we have began to collect more and more information about our surrounding environment. The standard map style has adapted to display this information, but over time this has led to the road and rail network becoming harder to identify. For example, trunk roads (currently shown in green) can be very hard to see in heavily forested areas.

In the new map style “road colours [are] tuned to ensure that roads are well visible on all landcovers”, explains Mateusz Konieczny, who has developed the new style (project details) . Mateusz has worked with the OpenStreetMap community at every step of the journey from initial research to draft implementations to gather feedback on the design. He adds that “steady progression of hue and lightness for major road types (motorway, trunk, primary, secondary, tertiary) should make more intuitive which roads are more important”.

There’s been other recent changes to the style – why highlight this one?

You’re right. For the last few years there has been a new map style released every two to three weeks. As with all things OpenStreetMap there is an army of volunteers working to fix and improve the map style. It would be great to write about all of them but that’s simply not possible. So this change, being one of the larger ones and a Google Summer of Code project, gives us a great opportunity to pause and thank all those who have contributed to the map style. Thank you style maintainers!

What next for this map style?

In the short term, it’s likely to be small incremental tweaks so as to continuously improve the map. Every big change attracts new style maintainers who bring their own ideas and experience. There may be a few minor tweaks to the paths and roads based on their ideas.

There is also an updated version of Mapnik, the underlying toolkit used to convert the written style rules in to the final map you see on the OSM website. The latest version will help to fix a lot of bugs related to non-latin scripts/languages. In the longer term there is the option to repopulate the database used by the Standard map style so that it has access to all OpenStreetMap data tags, not just a limited few.

And what about the other map styles?

Well this change only affects the ‘Standard’ (or default) layer as seen on openstreetmap.org.
There are a number of alternative map styles available or you could make your own. Perhaps you want to produce your own personal map to highlight features that are important to you, or maybe you want the map to better match your company brand. This is all possible with OpenStreetMap data. You can even take the current ‘Standard’ as a starting point.

Is it possible to add new map styles to the OSM website?

It is possible, although your style (and the hosting of it) must meet a number of criteria to be considered. See our tile layer guidelines.

Since the last additions to our OpenStreetMap tile serving network in December, there has been a lot more server set-up going on.

The German tile cache server tabaluga is now retired and is no longer serving tiles. This may sound like bad news, but quite the opposite! Tabaluga has been replaced with a new server, katie, which has taken over its job.
The new tile cache server katie is still located in Falkenstein, Germany, and still hosted by Hetzner.

More good news: There are two tile cache servers in Germany now!
The second tile cache server, konqi, is located in Jena, Germany, hosted by EUserv.

The Russian tile cache server gorynych just had a memory and SSD upgrade, and with this it can deliver even more content.

There is another new server in Hungary. With this Hungary becomes one of 12 countries hosting OSM CDN servers.

With all of these, the CDN (Content Delivery Network) server count comes to 16 active servers.

Tabaluga was running, thanks to Freerk Ohling, at Hetzner since May 2013, and served its last tiles in January. Freerk approached us back in April 2013 to suggest we implement EDNS client subnet support (implemented in December 2014) and to offer us a sponsored tile cache server. Now he has also kindly sponsored new tile cache servers in Germany.

Tabaluga primarily served traffic to visitors from Germany. Approximately 56 million map tiles per day. (avg 652/sec, peaking at 1245/sec). Serving close to 1TB of data per day. It was the highest traffic OSM tile cache server.

OpenStreetMap tiles are free for everyone to use, but should be used with moderation. If you are a high traffic site you should look at switch2osm.org to find out how to use the data and keep the tiles available for everyone.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If your organisation would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki. You can also support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project.

Have you noticed faster tiles lately? Browsing the map on openstreetmap.org should now be even more responsive. Three new servers, started providing tiles over the last 2 weeks, joining a server which started earlier in the year.

Map tiles are delivered to users based on their GeoDNS location. The OpenStreetMap tile content delivery network (CDN) now supports EDNS-client-subnet to improve locating the closest region tile cache.

OpenStreetMap tiles are free for everyone to use, but should be used with moderation. If you are a high traffic site you should look into switch2osm.org to find out how to use the data and keep the tiles available for everyone.

Thanks to generous donations and active local community members, the OpenStreetMap distributed tile delivery infrastructure continues to grow.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If you would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki. You can also support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project.

Thanks to generous donations and active local community members, the OpenStreetMap distributed tile delivery infrastructure continues to grow.

Two tile servers, nadder-01 and nadder-02, have been added to the OpenStreetMap tile cache network. Based in Provo, Utah, USA, these servers provide tiles to the Americas.

Map tiles are delivered to users based on their GeoDNS location. The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If you would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

OpenStreetMap database unavailable on 31 March 2013

There is a current problem with the OpenStreetMap database and so the data API is currently unavailable due to hardware failures.

The current issues were first observed early on 31 March 2013 when the primary database server became non-responsive. The system administrators are aware of the problem and will resolve it as soon as possible. A complicating factor is the observation of a holiday at the hosting facility that prevents physical access to the server until Tuesday morning.

With the database unavailable, editing is not possible. Other database-related activities, such a new-user-signups, are also unavailable.

Other non-database-related services should operate normally. Tiles are being served with current data.

The system administrators will continue to take steps towards the return of normal operation. Given the aforementioned holiday at the hosting facility, normal operation may not return until some time Tuesday, 02 April 2013.

2013-03-31 1810 UTC – Admin on site

One of the OpenStreetMap Foundation hard working system administrators is currently on-site at the hosting location and working on a solution.

Thank you to the facility and everybody involved for permitting access during the holiday.

Corrective actions are in progress. Services are not yet restored. Stay tuned.

2013-03-31 1900 UTC – Return to normal operation

The database has been returned to normal operation. All OpenStreetMap services should be operating as expected.

Thanks again to the admin team and our hosting providers for the prompt resolution to this unscheduled outage.

Some OpenStreetMap services will be off-line on 08 March 2013 for scheduled maintenance.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation, Operations Working Group advises that on 08 March 2013, scheduled maintenance of OpenStreetMap services will occur from approximately 0900H to 1600H UTC. The following service changes are expected:

API read-only from 0900H to 1500H UTC

Diffs off-line from 0900H to 1500H UTC

Wiki off-line/read-only from 1000H to 1600H UTC

The scheduled maintenance includes upgrades for the database server and improvements for the wiki server. Some more specifics given on the wiki. Actual service times may vary within the service windows described above.

Thank you, in advance, for your patience and understanding during the maintenance window.

Thank you, as always, to the Operations Working Group, for their tireless efforts that keep OpenStreetMap services working smoothly.

Thanks to generous donations and active members of the OpenStreetMap community, OpenStreetMap infrastructure continues to grow.

A new tile server, Trogdor, has been added to the OSM tile cache network. Located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Trogdor is currently serving tiles to IP addresses from The Netherlands, Belgium and several other central European and central African countries.

A second new tile server, Ridgeback, has also been added to the OpenStreetMap tile cache network. Located in Oslo, Norway, Ridgeback is currently serving tiles to IP addresses from Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and several others.

The list of countries served by any tile server will change over time due to expansion of the tile server network, loading, maintenance activities and other factors.

Map tiles are delivered to users based on their GeoDNS location. The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If you would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki.

We would like to thank Blix Solutions AS for this generous donation to OpenStreetMap infrastructure.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

Photo Credit. This photo of the Oslo tile cache server is kindly provided by Blix Solutions AS, licensed CC-By-SA and used by permission.

A small sample of the South Africa aerial imagery provided by CD:NGI, the mapping agency of the government of South Africa.

OpenStreetMap contributors in South Africa have negotiated with the South African government to arrange the donation of some aerial imagery to be used in creating and editing data for OpenStreetMap. Chief Directorate: National Geo-Spacial Information, or CD:NGI, part of the South African Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, have provided aerial imagery and OSM contributor Grant Slater, has prepared it for use in our editors. There is 3TB of imagery and covers all of South Africa.

Thanks as always to the many people who helped make this happen: the fine folks at CD:NGI, the OSM contributors who carried the data between continents, and the mappers who continue to make OSM data better, more up to date and accurate every day.

Do you want to donate aerial imagery or other data to OpenStreetMap? Contact the OSM Foundation Communication Working Group for more details. communication@osmfoundation.org

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

Thanks to generous donations and active members of the OpenStreetMap community, OpenStreetMap infrastructure continues to grow.

A new tile server, Lurien, has been added to the OSM tile cache network. Located in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, Lurien is currently serving tiles to IP addresses from France, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar, Italy, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican.

Lurien, highlighted.

Map tiles are delivered to users based on their GeoDNS location. The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If you would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

For the second time this month, the OpenStreetMap Foundation has a generous donation of OSM infrastructure to announce.

A new tile server, gorynych, has been added to the OSM tile cache network.

We would like to thank Yandex for providing the new tile server in Moscow. We’d also like to thank the local OpenStreetMap community, especially Dmitry, who was instrumental in the Yandex donation.

Map tiles are delivered to users based on their GeoDNS location. The OpenStreetMap Foundation seeks additional distributed tile servers. If you would like to donate a tile server and hosting, please see the Tile CDN requirements page on the wiki.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.